Catching Up With My Knitting...

I thought I would catch you all up with my knitting. I am participating in the Sock Knitters Anonymous Mystery Sock for September challenge, which must be knitted in the color orange. Since I didn't have any orange sock yarn on hand, I dyed a skein of 70% merino/30% silk sock yarn into this lovely "Cheetos" shade of orange. Here it is drying -

I really love how it came out! Once it was dry I balled it up and started the mystery sock pattern. Here it is after the first day of knitting:

And here it is after finishing the first clue:

I am now working on the second clue, where the "zig" starts to "zag".

I had previously started the Druid Mittens from the cover of the Fall Vogue Knitting magazine. I was using my hand-dyed and handspun red and black yarn. This one:

And here is the mitten in progress:

EXTREME CLOSE UP!!
I loved working with the yarn and loved the pattern, but my yarn was way over half gone before finishing the first mitten *sob* so I unraveled it. Who wants one mitten? I really need to learn to dye more roving at a time, and I am really working on this. I am hoping eventually to spin enough of one color to knit a pair of socks.

I have finished another challenge from my list of 5 top UFO's to finish, inspired by my friend Cindy. Here is number 2 crossed off the list, the Icelandic Lace Shawl I knit from all neutral shades of 100% wool. It was a monster to knit, boring with a CAPITAL B! By the end of it I was just working incessantly to finish the darn thing off. I don't recommend this pattern unless you can knit while you sleep. Give me charted lace any day! Which reminds me, I have signed up again this year for the Halloween Mystery Shawl designed by Goddess Knits, the one I made last year is my favorite shawl ever! Here is my Icelandic Shawl blocking on my design wall:
And the EXTREME CLOSE UP SHOT!
One more project off the needles since my last blog post is my Zombie Socks. This was a really enjoyable pattern. I felt so naughty every time I purposely dropped a stitch! The yarn used was my first hand-dyed sock yarn ever. This one:
You know, the one where I wanted to use ALL of my colors? Well it knit up just beautifully as a pair of Zombies:
And, of course, THE EXTREME CLOSE UP:

Now it is time to start concentrating on some Christmas projects, I don't know how many I will be able to share this year since some of the family now reads my blog. We shall see, until next time...